TREE SNAKES 



exactly like a huge elephant, a fact which our host 

 pointed out to us with great pride. 



May 24. — I had rather a shock this evening, for 

 on moving a small log of wood nearer to the fire to 

 form a seat I discovered three snakes on which I had 

 nearly put my hands. Aarup said they were harmless, 

 but our boys seemed very frightened of them, saying 

 that they were " very bad," so I did not give them 

 the benefit of the doubt, but killed them. They were 

 about fifteen inches long with a white and green stripe 

 running along the back. I afterwards saw several of 

 the same kind — once nine in a day — and as they were 

 always on or in dead wood I suppose they must be some 

 form of tree snake. 



This evening our neighbours up the hill-side held 

 another of their smoldng concerts, the row being, 

 if anything, worse than before. There were about a 

 hundred of them, one of whom would sing a kind 

 of solo on about two notes, then all the rest would join 

 in the chorus, which consisted of a weird minor 

 interval, another short solo, another chorus, and so 

 on until about 3.0 a.m., and yet they were out and 

 about at sunrise, showing no signs of sleepiness or 

 fatigue. 



May 25. — Having already had a successful day 

 with my camera amongst the kingfishers, I decided 

 that whilst we were so near the shore of the lake 

 I would avail myself of the opportunity of making 



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